Hey, did you know that Will Rogers is credited by many as coining the term "trickle down" during the Great Depression?

Before that another term, "Horse and Sparrow", was used back when the Republicans screwed up the economy in 1896, meaning if you stuffed enough oats into the horse there would be some for the sparrow coming out the backside.

The wealthy are lousy drivers of the economy. Unfortunately, history shows wealth pools among the few. And once they have most of the marbles, they don't spend or invest, which creates recessions and depressions.

Calli,

I don't recall Adam Smith ever used the term laissez-faire. Republican mythologists like to pin the word on him and tie it to his description of "the invisible hand." Speaking of ties, they can also say such an economist is "wearing the tie of Adam Smith."

However, and a big however it is, Smith also spoke of the "poorest of the poor" being able to afford commodities deemed necessary in their economies, because their purchase of shirts and shoes, etc. are what drive economies.

Additionally, Smith was much more generous toward the poor than modern-day Republicans in taxation, believing the wealthy in any nation derive much more benefit from their governments than the poor.

He wrote,

"It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."

After all, governments protect the assets of the wealthy; the poor have nothing to protect.

One more thing, Cali, calling Adam Smith an economist is akin to accusing Jesus Christ of being a Christian.

posted March 15, 2009 08:24
_______________________ CP __ I know but I feel like baiting a few conservatives today, just like setting out donuts for cops. This last guy doesn't even know that your screen name is C P guess he did not go to a liberal funded school (read as Public) but had a private tutor.

"And for the leader of the Republicans? A man who is aggressive and bombastic, cutting and sarcastic, who dismisses the concerned citizens in network news focus groups as "losers." With his private plane and his cigars, his history of drug dependency and his personal bulk, not to mention his tangled marital history, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence—exactly the image that Barack Obama most wants to affix to our philosophy and our party. And we're cooperating! Those images of crowds of CPACers cheering Rush's every rancorous word—we'll be seeing them rebroadcast for a long time."